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Editorial: Do the right thing and report the rioters

604-717-2541 is the tip line for the Vancouver Police Department. Their officers, the good citizens of Vancouver and this newspaper urge you to call it if you can identify any of the thugs and hooligans who were caught on camera committing crimes during Wednesday's Stanley Cup riot.

Do you have photographs or videos that can assist police in identifying rioters behind the assaults, looting, arson, theft or mischief? Send them by email to robbery@vpd.ca or share them on YouTube so investigators can catch the crooks.

Much will be said in the coming days and months about why Vancouver suffered another outbreak of vicious, mindless violence after a Stanley Cup final. Many had thought, in the wake of the Olympics, that we'd evolved as a city and that a repeat of 1994 couldn't occur.

Those people were wrong -- and all right-thinking citizens are appalled at what happened.

That is why it is of utmost importance that the first thing we do as a community is to scream a forceful, collective "No!" at those who attacked both the physical and metaphorical heart of our city. And the best way to do that is to identify, prosecute and punish -- hopefully with real jail terms -- those responsible for the mayhem.

A good part of mob violence is that people who might otherwise not involve themselves in destruction are emboldened by what they feel is the anonymity of being in a crowd, the sense that they'll be able to get away with their misconduct because they won't be identified.

In the age of the Internet and social media, most of those responsible for the mayhem will be easy to pick out -- if, and only if, citizens do their part and report them to police.

We would urge you to do that -- anonymously -- if you must, even if it is a friend.

If you don't, you'll only have yourself to blame if an angry mob is rolling over and burning the vehicle that you worked long and hard to buy, smashing into and looting the store that supports your family, or randomly beating up one of your friends or family members.

- - -

The riot has a lot of people asking questions about why it happened, starting with what is wrong with some young people in the Lower Mainland? Why do so many -- and it's not just a handful, as some have been saying -- apparently take pleasure in assaulting others, destroying other people's property and generally running amok?

For starters, the parents of the rioters should be looking themselves in the mirror and asking where they went wrong. But so should our education and justice systems, which have become so ineffective in dealing with misbehaviour over the years that they've created a prevailing atmosphere of permissiveness, where some feel they don't need to follow the laws.

And certainly the thousands of bystanders at the riot need to accept some blame. While they may not have lit a car on fire, punched anyone or fought with police, their very presence, taking pictures and egging on the crowd, was as much the cause of the violence as those who took an active role.

Then there is the whole notion of the downtown party zones. Mayor Gregor Robertson says he has no plans to change his policy of closing streets and hosting public celebrations, but the city would do well to ask itself some hard questions. While it might be fun to close streets for some events, was it really smart to collect thousands of often drunk young fans together in the downtown core for Game 7 of the final?

It was asking for trouble. Given what happened, city hall should consider cancelling the weekend closures of Granville Street this summer in the bar district, since it will attract a similar crowd, especially since most Vancouverites, those not in their 20s, won't be interested in attending.

Finally, while the police did a decent job overall in handling the riot, and certainly need our support in the weeks ahead as they investigate the hoodlums, the department should review whether it showed too much restraint, especially initially, in responding to the violence. It certainly appeared that more cops on the ground more quickly could have arrested troublemakers earlier and prevented some of the later violence.

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